Gold smuggling at airport: CISF suspends 20 officials

Aug 18, 2012, 06:51 IST
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Bipin Kumar Singh

The commandant in-charge of Mumbai airport's international terminal transferred to a naxal-affected area in Chattisgarh

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has come down hard on its officers who were involved in smuggling gold at the city airport. According to a well-placed source at the Mumbai Airport, 20 CISF personnel, including one assistant commandant level officer, were declared suspended yesterday.

Gets tough: CISF officials suspended 20 of its personnel yesterday following the enquiry in the gold smuggling case

Besides, the CISF commandant in-charge of the international terminal was transferred to naxal-affected area of Bastar in Chattisgarh.

The MiD DAY report on August 12, 2012. FILE PIC

“The officials were suspended following the enquiry in the gold smuggling case. CISF commandant Ajay Kumar was also transferred,” he said.

The CISF, on August 12, had ordered an enquiry into the smuggling case after two of its officers were caught red handed by the Directorate of Revenue intelligence (DRI) and Air Intelligence Unit (AIU).

The case had become so significant that the Director General of CISF himself formed a team to investigate the matter and find out if other troopers were also involved in it.

While there was no official statement from the CISF headquarter, DIG, CISF (Western region) S P Selvan remained unavailable for comment.

Hand-in-glove About 11 kg of gold was recovered in a joint raid conducted by DRI and AIU at the Mumbai airport on August 10 and 11. Two CISF officers - Uday Singh Meena and Murari Lal Meena - were caught red handed while aiding smugglers. Their modus operandi was - smugglers would notify them the flight details after which they would escort the consignment out of the airport through the special security exit.